Doing Dewey's Readathon

I think it's probably been awhile since I participated in the readathon. So maybe I'll try again this Saturday. Yes, I signed up, but we'll see how much I actually sit and read. Not sure how this day will turn out!

For one thing, it's Jenny's wedding that night!! Wahoo! So I'll be going to that for sure and hopefully I'll snap a few pictures for you, because I'm guessing there's a few of you who just might be interested!

Another thing, I'll be up late Friday night (Josh's concert!) and up early Saturday morning to take my sister back to the airport, the sister who has come to town to go to the concert with me! So... it could be that I'll be already running on fumes that day.

But, I hope to read. Let's just say that! And what I hope to read I've already mentioned in my monthly wrap up post as plans for October. I guess I'm not veering from that plan for the readathon since so many of my books have deadlines this month!

So... what I hope to work on for Saturday is:

Tinkers by Paul Harding... he's coming to the library on Tuesday so I wanted to have his book read, or at least started. It's a tiny little thing, so it would be perfect for the readathon, assuming that's it's also easy reading, which I'm not so sure about yet. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner, which could either be a good thing or a bad thing!

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte.... this is for book club which is next Thursday. It would be a re-read for me, but it's been long enough since I read it that I don't remember a thing, so I really should try to re-read it for book club so I know what's going on! It's a tiny thing too, but I'm guessing not really that easy of reading.

Also, if I haven't finished them in the next couple of days, I need to finish Fiesta of Smoke for a blog tour and Across a Star-swept Sea for reviewing next week, as it comes out then. I've made good progress on both, so maybe my Saturday will simply be finishing them up!

But... if I could read ANYTHING I'd add these to my pile:

-- Days of Blood and Starlight
-- And the Mountains Echoed
-- The 5th Wave
-- The Vampire Lestat

Oh, well. We'll see how it goes. Will you be joining the party? Get all the details here!

Movie Review: Gravity

Movie: Gravity
Genre: Drama (in space,but not science fiction)
Starring: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney
Rating: PG13
My Rating: Two thumbs up!!

I didn't know much about this movie going in, only that it was supposed to be good and cool and different. And somehow, we just sort of on the spur of the moment ended up going opening weekend. Love it when that happens!

I also heard it was supposed to be especially good in 3D, so since I'm okay with 3D,  3D it was!

And then it started. I could instantly tell this was not going to be your ordinary movie. The opening shot and sequence was breath taking. Ah, there are no words to describe the experience of watching this movie! Basically, you feel like you are flying out there in space!

The plot is very simple. There's a crew on the a shuttle doing their routine mission in space, including a space walk to fix some equipment. Far far away from them, a satellite is hit by space debris and breaks up, and before we know it, that debris is headed right for these guys! When it hits them, many many bad things happen. The rest of the movie is one of these characters trying to survive the experience, and it's so intense! It's one of those movies were bad things happen one after another after another!

You'll find yourself biting your fingernails, sliding off your seat onto the floor, hiding in your neighbors lap (whether you know them or not!) gasping out loud a few times, and many many bouts of literally holding your breath! Yeah, don't forget to breathe now and then!

The special effects and sound (or lack of sound which is even more impressive sometimes) are amazing! And the film work, I don't even know how they did it!! We are spinning and floating almost constantly, right along with the characters, yet somehow, this did not make me dizzy, so don't freak about that! (And I'm prone to motion sickness.)

The entire movie is in space, and there is NO GRAVITY whatsoever! Well, yeah, you'll get it. It's awesome.

The music is fabulous too by the way... very haunting and creepy in parts, very inspirational in others. Here's one of my favorites so far:


And Sandra Bullock? Amazing! Awesome! Crazy good!

Bottom line: Oh my word, I loved it. People say it's even better on the IMAX and I would love to see it again on that screen. Anyone want to go with me? I love this stuff. I really do. Let me know if you see it and what you think.

Here's the trailer:

Book Review: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Book: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Blog Tour and Support Local Authors
From: ARC provided by Literary Lushes ARC Tours

David lives in a world where there's been an event (they call it Calamity) where some people are suddenly being born with super powers. The strange and terrible thing is that those people are using their powers to cause havoc and chaos in the country. The powers have turned them evil in a big big way.

When David was little, he was a witness to an event at a bank where one of these guys (they call them Epics) swooped down and killed everyone at the bank (including David's father) and then proceeded to take over the city of Chicago (now known as Newcago).

Two things happened though... he (Steelheart is his name) didn't know that David was left alive, and he also didn't know that David got a glimpse of his weakness.

Because yes, all these Epics have a weakness and if you can figure out what that is, you can kill them.  And there's a group of regular humans who have set out to do just that, called the Reckoners. It's David's life long quest to become part of that group and seek revenge for his father's death and kill Steelheart.

And wow! What an adventure this becomes! This is an awesome urban fantasy/ science fiction tale complete with cool high tech gadgets, guns of all sorts, crazy super powers, a crumbling world and some really really bad guys! Some awesome good guys too! These are great characters!

There's lots of edge of your seat battle scenes, getaways, car chases, and breathless hiding moments. It really is quite awesome.  Not only that, the conclusion is fabulous with some really great twists and surprises thrown in.

I only downgraded it to four stars because for me, there was much too much gun talk here. Boring guns! Other than that, the rest was anything but boring! (In fact yes, there's quite a bit of violence so beware if you are leery of that!)

Bottom line: If you are in the mood for a rip roaring ride in a dark apocalyptic world, you'll love this one just like I did!

Other Reviews:

I loved the plot, which keeps things rolling, but throws several curveballs into the seemingly perfect plan and has enough breathing room for the characters to question what they are doing and why. From In Bed With Books

What Steelheart lacks in polish and initial impact it more than makes up for in terms of energy and affection. From The Speculative Scotsman

The book starts off with a bang and does not let up until the very last page. It’s seriously amazing. From Book Twirps Book Reviews

Ultimately, Steelheart manages to be both a fun read and a serious one. I have always had a huge thing for villains in fiction, – so for me, reading this was like eating ice cream. From My Shelf Confessions

I particularly recommend it to fans of superhero fiction, especially the darker, less heroic kind. From Tsana's Reads and Reviews

T-shirt Winners and What We Learned from The Book Thief

Time for our Book Thief t-shirt drawing! We've picked three winners!

But first, in order to enter the contest, everyone had to say what they learned from this book. And I loved everyone's comments! I hadn't planned on sharing these, so I hope it's okay with you all that entered, but they were just too good not to share. Anyway, since this wasn't in the plan, I didn't ask for your blogs (if you even have one) so I haven't linked to anyone (even if I actually do know who some of you are!)

So here's what you said you learned:


Words are important and can save someone. From April

 Death and life intermingle. From Taffy

 I learnt that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel - as cheesy as that sounds. Just because we're going through a tough time doesn't mean it's the end of the world. There will be bad things and there will be good things. From Fatma Shahin

 That sometimes it's okay to read something based on the hype. From Kristilyn

 I thought it was a really interesting perspective on Nazi Germany. It made me think a lot about how hard it could have been to be a German at the time. From Katie

 The biggest thing I learned was that there is beauty in the midst of destruction— pure good in the midst of pure evil. How beautiful qualities like hope, courage, and compassion can come out of terrible things like war, death, and greed. From Hannah

 I learned that words have incredible power to for life or death. I also learned that life must be lived now, while you have it, because it can be taken away at any time. From Jordanne

 That the greatest gift we can give is to love be loved in return. That there is always good and evil and hope and despair. That what we say and write has power and That man is capable of evil and great goodness. The goodness is to be treasured. From Rachel

 Hitler sucks. He cause horror even to his own people. From Jenni Elyse

 This book made me wonder if I would or could respond in the same way under such pressure. Would I treat those that need help the same way? From Josanna

 Just ONE thing? I think I'm going to go with words and how important it is for us to use them for good. Even if our words don't do anything that will change the world, they may change someone's personal world. Does that make sense? For example, Liesel's words didn't change the outcome of WWII. They didn't change Hitler. But they changed Rudy's world, Han's and Rosa's worlds, the mayor's wife's world, and Max's world. We all have that same power. From Britney

 I thought it was interesting to think about the German side of the war and to consider how they felt and suffered also. From Erin

Awesome stuff don't you think? I love it.

And now the winners after plugging numbers into Random.org:

First winner: Kristilyn (won the gray shirt)
Second winner: Taffy (won the white shirt)
Third winner: Josanna (won the green shirt)

Congratulations! We'll be contacting you by email to get your mailing addresses! Enjoy the shirts! Wear them to the movie! :)

And thanks again to everyone who participated in our read along. We've had a blast reading this awesome book with you! We think we're going to have to do it again sometime soon with a whole new book!

Random Sunday Thoughts

Because I can't think straight enough for anything else, let's have a random post today, how about?

** Making Hootenanny (aka German) Pancakes today as part of our conference (aka LDS conference aka a break from going to church!) tradition. So yummy.

** Waiting for youngest daughter to come home from the Shakespeare competition. Sounds like they had a great time and were successful in their endeavors.

** Saw Gravity last night. Oh my word! That movie was awesome! Seriously people. Go see it. In 3D. Full review to come soon!

** Only ONE MORE DAY until we close the Book Thief T-shirt giveaway. You want one, I know it. Fill out the form here.

** We (Kathy and I) went to Rachel's (SmilingLDSGirl) book club last week to discuss The Book Thief. We'd only ever talked online and then showed up at her house for book club! Don't you LOVE the internet!!

** I've been doing tons of Pinterest things, beware a Pin It and Do It update soon!

** And why do I keep feeling dizzy? I hate that!

** We had snow this week. The weather is cool and perfect!

** I started reading a book for a TLC tour that I knew nothing about and was a little worried because it's quite big, but guess what... I'm loving it! I will tell you ALL about it soon!

** Speaking of books and reviewing, why am I getting declined by NetGalley so much suddenly? It's sort of disheartening! But never fear... I have PLENTY to read!

** November starts the big books to movie month! Are you ready? I'm ready! Ender's Game, The Book Thief, Catching Fire. Great Expectation is actually out next week, as will Romeo and Juliet. What other books are being made into movies in these next few months? I think there's more! Oh, more Hobbit of course! It looks awesome. I yes, I don't care what you all say, I'm excited for more Legolas. I've missed him! But especially more Thorin! :)

** Speaking of next week.. JOSH GROBAN! I'm coming! So excited!



Well, and now I must go. Happy Sunday and Happy New Week!

A Tweet to Share

Remember that one time when Markus Zusak tweeted us after a Book Thief discussion and gave us a pretty good compliment? Here it is just in case you missed it as it was pretty early in the morning: 

@SueySays @kamisthoughts @kathyreadsthis ...Provo...I miss you. Best readers in the world.
— Markus Zusak (@Markus_Zusak) October 2, 2013

I swear he just gets more and more cool.

Reading Emotions

While reading certain highly emotional books recently, I've felt the need to have a little discussion! And it's been so long since I've thought up a discussion post, I figured it's long past time!

Something that I find interesting and worth defending is when we read books that bring out some sort of strong emotion and then we base the "goodness" of that book on the emotion. For instance, if the book made you MAD, do you then hate the book because of it? If the book made you cry buckets, do you hate the book because of it? If the book made you CRAZY with frustration, do you hate the book and deem it a bad one?

Yes, the question here is.... do we judge a book good or bad based on the emotions we feel while reading it?

My argument is that a book is good if it causes strong emotions. And that in fact, this is the very definition of a good book. I mean, of course you can still say you liked it or didn't like it, but I'm hoping you'd still say it's a GOOD book. Am I making sense here? That the very fact that it stirs up strong emotions and causes some sort of reaction for the reader makes it be a good book, and one that you should talk up and recommend around.

So on the other hand, if a book is emotionally dead, perhaps that's a bad book. Now, I'm a little squirmy even using the terms good and bad for this discussion because it's all so relative, right? But I think you get what I'm saying here, yes?

At any rate, I find myself always defending books when people say the reason they didn't like them was because of a certain emotion. And I'll always say... but, but, but that's what made this book so GOOD! Now, I don't know if that's right or wrong that I do this defending thing, so that's what I'm wondering here.

What do you think?